Chain of Time
by Ash's Girl
Summary: Monsters and super heroes don't fall out of the sky. Nonexistent people don't leave marks on the world. Zero Eleth doesn't exist. But it's just simply amazing what people would do for the ones they love; tear apart time, rewrite the laws of the natural world, maybe even take a blast to the chest. It would be far easier if Hubert just asked Pascal to dinner, though.
1. Chapter 1

It's cold in Fendel.

Do you know how cold it has to be for snow to always be on the ground? It's a truly bitter biting cold that sink it's windy teeth into you and sucks the ever living heat right out of you. Harsh. Unforgiving. And it's always windy, pushing the cold around so that no one ever gets to chance to know what it means to be warm.

Hubert would know. He was standing outside Fendel Tower in his typical lieutenant outfit, which is made more for the hot, dry desert then standing cold, wet snow.

So it's _**cold** _in Fendel.

And he really wanted Pascal to appear already. She need...something. In all honestly, all he had seen on his communicator was 'I need you to meet me outside Fendel Tower' and he was on the first ship out. The excuse being that the President was expecting an answer to the proposition involving his daughter and the conversations had all taken that turn or one toward his father's antics toward getting back in politics, which in truth were one in the same.

So why not let the universe hold a carrot in front of his face? Everything seemed to be stacked in favor of him chasing the carrot anyways. And he...well...he liked that carrot. She's a good carrot.

He had thought about reading the rest of the message on the ship ride there, but honestly, you have no idea what it's like to be pursued on a personal level by the President. Concerning his daughter. Making a run for the nearest ship and getting an uninterrupted passage to Fendel was not as easy or fun as it sounds when the President is clever enough to don normal clothing and stalk you across the desert.

He opened the communicator and decided to familiarize himself with what exactly she needed.

Apparently there was trouble with the Valkines, and if all her onomonopias are to be believed, she had tried to fix it. Which probably involved just hitting the most powerful and frightful cryas with that ridiculous hammer and drill of hers. Blindly. He chose not to think about that.

There was also something about...portals? Gates? Vortexes? The last part had devolved into something he was sure that only criminally insane and small children could understand.

"Hello _Hu_." A snide voice of an older sister traveled right up to him. It was like getting lashed with the wind again when he knew the mockery was coming. He put the communicator back in his pocket.

"Hello Fourier." Hubert glared as Fourier stopped to talk.

"You're looking for Pascal too, I assume?"

He paused.

"I'm not looking. I'm waiting. She told me to meet her outside the Tower." He pushed up his glasses for good measure.

"Well, you'll be waiting a while then. Nobody can find her." Fourier glared around hoping to catch her sister creeping around. "Honestly, that girl..."

"She probably ran head first into trouble again." Hubert shrugged and looked toward the road that lead to the center of town. "Half-cocked and knee deep in monsters."

"I'd believe that if I thought she'd taken her weapon." Fourier produced Pascal's shotstaff from behind her back. He knew it was Pascal's instantly from the banana residue hand prints and the messy writing of her name in black marker near the end. "She has her moments, but she isn't that stupid."

Hubert didn't like where this was going. He had to agree. Pascal was dense when it came to things like biology, hygiene, and social convention, but she was more then smart enough to take her shotstaff if she ran off half-cocked into battle.

"Do you have any idea where she could have gone?" He asked as Fourier hid the weapon.

"Well, she should have been here." Fourier shrugged. "It seems that she sent out a message to everyone she knows to get to Fendel Tower."

He really didn't like where this was going. "Everyone?"

"Captain Malik, Asbel, Cheria, Sophie, and King Richard have been here since the shuttle landed." Fourier's weren't looking at him. They were looking at the scenery behind him. "They've been searching the tower and around town."

"Amazing I didn't run into them." Hubert thought very carefully, with every available wheel in his head turning to figure out where she is. "Where's Asbel?"

"Inside." She gestured to the tower. He immediately started toward the door. "Hey.."

"Yes?" He turned as Fourier fixed her gaze on the ground. "What is it?"

"You'll find my idiot sister, right?" She seemed a little bitter about asking that. "You of all people will find that idiot monkey, right?"

"Of course I will." He said truthfully. Something about his tone made her look up. "Then I'm going to lecture that insufferable woman about ripping me from my work and traveling across an ocean until her ears bleed."

She nodded and followed Hubert. "Seems only fair."

Asbel was talking to Sophie just beyond the door when the two of them stepped in.

"Hey Hubert." Asbel greeted him. "I thought you were in Stratha."

"I was." Hubert pushed up his glasses a bit. "Any word on where Pascal is?"

"Well, she isn't in the tower." Malik's voice arrived before he did. Richard followed behind him.

"The gall of that woman." Hubert glared around the room for something to focus on. "Telling us all to come here just to vanish into thin air."

"No need to be worried, Hubert." Richard commented "I'm sure she's fine."

"Can we please mock Hubert later?" Asbel's annoyance level started to rise on subject matter. "Someone might actually be in trouble."

The universe seemed to agree, as there were two high pitched screams outside the doors. One was high pitched and incredibly girly that was in distress, the other was far more paniced female and was making some odd cartoon-ish sounds.

"CHERIA!"/"PASCAL!"

Hubert and Asbel didn't seem to be able to open the door fast enough. In fact, the door and all the science behind the speed in which a door can possibly open and how fast they could run was too slow for them.

But how fast the monsters were pouring out of black orbs hanging around the tower was more then fast enough for them.

Hubert saw Pascal flail and shout for cover as she made a mad dash for right behind him. He instantly drew his weapon, not that anyone could ever figure how where exactly he hides his dualblades. It was all adrenaline and selective sight as he took down the monsters around him.

...5.6.7-He was losing count and his ability to keep up. His attacks were starting to...bounce? Either these dualblades were starting dull, or these monsters were getting stronger. He held up his guard as tried to gain his breath. He couldn't attack endlessly.

That was until several bear-shaped monsters grabbed Hubert's dualblades and chucked them away from him. It wasn't just knocking them out of his like he was a rookie using them, they all actively grabbed the blades and pulled them out. Monsters were never that smart and should have never been that strong.

He took a good look around at his surroundings.

There was just an army of monsters coming for them. No. Army was too small of a word. A nation of monsters. No, that still seemed like too small of a word. A universe? A plethora? The entire _race_ of monsters? He didn't know what the words were, but they were flowing from the orbs at an alarming rate, like water from a faucet turned all the way up.

And they were both surrounded. He was weaponless. So was Pascal, who was huddling behind him, scared, and relying on him to protect her. What he had last seen, Asbel had gone to protect Cheria. Everyone else, it seems, was swallowed by the endless stream of monsters too. He couldn't see beyond the three foot ring of dead monsters around him. The only comfort he could take was that he could hear them fighting, inflicting and taking blows from all the monsters.

"Hu.." Pascal whimpered from behind him.

"Don't worry." Hubert's brain rushed in every kind of direction. "We're going to get out of here. One way or another."

"Promise?" She said looking around. He could feel her grip digging into his back.

She was quiet. She was scared. Maybe that what was scared him most of all.

And in all honesty, he was too.

But he wasn't going to let her die here. Not here. Not now. Not while he's still alive.

"Promise." He nodded and looked into the faces of all the monsters.

He didn't know how he was going to do it. It seemed impossible. He was probably going to die. If he was going to give Pascal a shot to keep living, he _definitely_ was going to die. And it was going to happen really fast.

For the first time since he was a kid, he closed his eyes and wished for a superhero to come save him. It was irrational, impossible, and stupid, but damnit, it was the only thing he could take comfort in right now.

The was the sound of a portal opening. It was instinctual to know when was opening, it just made that unique sound. He looked up. One of the gates opened directly above their heads.

At least it'd be quick.

A black blur fell out of the gate and sank it's sword into the monster's head in front of them with extreme prejudice. A red blur followed it and sank it's sword into another monster's head, and the two blurs danced around the yard, never touching but always moving, knocking off as many monsters as they could before the blurs settled back to back in the middle of the frenzy. One was a boy, about 18, with dark unkempt red hair with a red shirt kept closed with brown buckles and long white jacket decorated with red and silver trim. The other was a girl, about the same age, who wore large sunglasses and a large flowing black jacket with a silver zipper that ran from her knees to her chest with a big floppy hood, which was pulled up so far over her face it covered most of it. Both their swords shined in the light as they contemplated their next move, though hers seemed to have more bulk to it.

Pascal looked at them from over Hubert's shoulder as the girl's adjusted her hand and looked around. Were those...gears on the hilt?

"Just like Gralesyde?" She asked looking around as the monsters collected themselves to refocus their attack on the two. She took an awfully long look at Pascal and Hubert.

"I was thinking Velanik." He grinned. He nugged her and brought her back to reality.

"I _hated_ Velanik." She groaned and adjusted her hand. It seems the sword was as heavy as it looked. "But seeing as I can't really argue right now...let's go with that."

"That's the spirit!" He charged straight into the thickest part of the monsters.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN." She shouted. With a flip of the wrist, her sword split in half and became a pair of hand guns witch provided covering fire as the boy launched into every kind of maneuver to take down the largest enemies around. She spun, streams of eleth bullets flying into the monsters directly around her, causing them to flee toward the biggest monster in the room for cover. Once they all had successfully huddled around last largest monster, the girl stopped her fire and threw her guns up in the air. The boy jumped up the same spot as the guns, she jumped up and grabbed her weapon, with had fused itself into becoming a staff, and they both plunged into the group of monsters with as much eleth as they could both summon.

The monsters were gone when the snow and dust cleared. The two of them had left a crater where they had landed, and somehow the girl had hidden her weapon under her jacket. The boy simply put his back in the sheath. They both looked around, causing everyone else to look too.

All the gates and monsters had vanished.

"Is everyone okay?" The boy's looked around them. "Anyone hurt?"

"Who are you two?" Cheria's voice called out. She was found huddling behind Asbel.

"Oh." He looked at Cheria. His face paled a little bit." I'm...Lion."

"Clever." The girl clapped her hands lightly in approval. She smiled at the group as they all came together.

"I'm...Fara." She said. She smiled politely. She reached under her hood and messed around with her hair before taking the hood off. Her long white hair was caught underneath the jacket. "I'm sorry I can't take my glasses off, the monster took a really good shot right at my eyes, so now the light kind of hurts."

"Oh, let me have a look at them." Cheria offered as she approached her.

"Um, no, that's okay." Fara said holding on to the glasses. "These glasses make me look cool anyways, so why not keep them on?" She let out a nervous laugh.

Cheria backed off a little, gave her a look that expressed her confusion and thoughts that Fara was insane. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Nah, I've taken bigger tumbles." She smiled. "Thank you, though."

Fara looked around spotted Hubert's dualblades close to where she was standing. She gleefully ran and picked them up, admiring them. She twirled them around, spinning them and jumping around making sound as though she was attacking monsters.

"Excuse me." Hubert said walking toward her. Pascal had dashed off the minute she could after the monsters cleared to get a good look at Lion.

"Oh, these are yours, huh?" She smiled and turned them sideways to had it to him. He took the grip as she let go. "Neat weapon."

"Yes." He stared into large black lenses. He couldn't see anything, but the rest of her face seemed hopeful and excited. If not rather oafish. "They're a Statan military secret. I can't speak of it and I'd advise for you not too either."

"Oh, that's okay." She walked away with her palms up and her head tilted, with a little sarcasm laced in her voice. "Not like I have reason to take it or anything."

"...Who did you say you were again?" Hubert ask as he followed her to the rest of the group.

"Fara." She smiled. "The girl who's going to help you with this whole time warp problem."

"Time warp problem?" Malik asked

"Yeah...uhh...as it works out..." Lion scratched the back of his head.

"Those monsters you fought were time warped." Fara nodded as she patted Lion on the back. "They had fallen into pockets where all of space and time are ripping, causing them to absorb a massive amount of zero eleth."

"Whoa, zero eleth?" Pascal jumped up. "You guys can prove that it exists?"

"It can't exist." Fourier said pulling out Pascal's weapon and hitting her with it. "There is only three types of the eleth that exist. Another one would throw the universe into disarray."

"Oh, you guys make it sound like that hasn't happened before." Fara stretched her arms out. "And yes, we can prove that zero eleth exists."

"What do you mean happened before?" Richard asked, trying to keep his calm.

"We're from the future!" She motioned to Lion and herself. "We know all you. We're all friends! You told us. About Lambda."

"And Fodra." Lion shrugged. "It was kinda a big deal for you guys."

"And how the world nearly came to crashing halt because Proto Heis-slash-Sophie here was designed to punch a hole in Richard-slash-Lamba because Lamba-Richard here was trying to punch a hole in the Lastalia." Fara smiled. "Oh, wait. Right. You guys don't know me yet. King Richard. Sorry."

"That's not...completely right." Cheria said

"Yeah...Fara tends to not listen when people tell her the story." Lion scratched the back of his head. "But how else do you think we know that Lambda is a good guy and lives in Asbel's purple eye? Or sleeping in Fodra's' core...you guys have always been a little iffy on the specifics about that."

"So...you know us." Malik hesitated. "From the _future_."

"Are we...friends in the future?" Sophie asked walking up to Fara.

"The best-est friends!" Fara said taking Sophie's hands. "We eat crablettes and eel bowls a lot and you gave me Sopheria flowers for my birthday and-"

"Oh brother...Fara, don't spoil the future." Lion groaned and shook his head.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Fara let go of Sophie and faced the rest of the group. "So what exactly do you guys want to know ?"


	2. Chapter 2

"For starters, how about where you have been Pascal?" Hubert turned and glared at Pascal "And why you need us here."

"Yeah, ignore the monsters falling out of the sky, time warp, emissaries from the future and world changing discovery of zero eleth." Fara reeled off as she threw her hands up in the air. "Where have you been Pascal? Clearly that's above everything else."

Lion lightly dropped a closed fist on Fara's head. She silenced herself. They all turned to Pascal.

"That's the thing, I don't know." Pascal said scratching the back of her head. "One of those black portal things opened up in front of the tower and I thought I'd poke it a little. And then broop-I got sucked in, I fought off some monsters in this timey-whimy pocket like when we fought the dragons, then Cheria found me down an alley way and it seemed like a few hours had passed. Then, ya know, monsters." Pascal paused and thought for a moment. "I don't remember sending anyone any messages."

_That was a small link._ Lion thought glancing at Fara. She shrugged, almost being able to hear his thoughts._ I wonder who needed to be a few hours into a future._

"Pascal, we all got messages from you." Hubert said opening the communicator. "It told us to be here. See?"

"And I have your weapon." Fourier said producing Pascal's shotstaff. "How can you fight anything without it?"

"What are you talking about?" Pascal looked confused as she reached behind herself. "I have it right here."

They all stared as Fourier and Pascal pointed the same weapon at each other. Banana marks, name, design, everything. Exactly the same.

"What is going on?" Asbel asked looked at the two of them.

"How is there two of them?" Cheria, stunned as everyone else, circled around them like sharks to get a better look.

Fara moved between the two staffs and made them touch. A bright clash of white and black ribbons appeared for a brief moment before she ripped them apart.

"Same object." Fara said calmly. "Two different points in time."

"What?" Malik shook his head. She could hear the disbelief send more of a message then the question itself.

"Let me demonstrate." Fara swallowed her emotions, took Pascal's staff and tossed it to Lion. She then held both her index finger and thumb on both hands together to create a square in front of her as they moved away from her for safety sake.

"_Oh spirit of life, of time, of space, of the everything and all!_" Fara's incantation moved the wind to spin around her and the earth to shake. "_Hear my call! My we run faster then the wind, the earth shake with our movements, and the fire hear us roar! I am the guardian that offers my heart and my soul as I wait for your answer to open to a time and another place!_"

As she moved her hands apart, still keeping her thumb and index finger in the same position, a black vortex appeared and got larger until she dropped her hands to her side. She turned around and faced the group. "Someone should right something down."

Sophie raised her hand as high as she could.

"Go ahead Sophie." Fara crossed her arms. Sophie quickly produced a piece of paper and scribbled something down on her knee.

"It says 'We should all get crabblettes.'" Sophie nodded in approval, as it also had quick doodle of Sophie with a crabblette.

"Cool." Fara took the paper and rolled it up. She exchanged it for the staff from Lion, and popped open the top to reveal an empty compartment.

"Your staff comes apart?" Asbel asked looking at Pascal.

"Well of course, that's usually were I keep my spare banana!" Pascal cheered

Lion placed the note inside and Fara closed the top. She then tossed the staff through the portal and snatched Hubert's communicator.

"What are you doing?" Hubert watched as she stuck her arm with the communicator though the portal.

"Preventing a paradox." She said pulling her arm and the communicator back through the portal as it slowly closed behind her. (_Huh. It didn't want to send._)

She handed the communicator back to Hubert.

"Okay, Fourier, open the top off the staff." Fara said crossing her arms.

"It should prove we're time travelers if there's a note at the top of that staff." Lion said."If not, we'll be out of your hair."

Fourier shifted uncomfortably as everyone turned to her. Being stared by everyone at is possibly the most ridiculous concept made her want to chuck the staff back at Pascal out of sheer embarrassment.

"C'mon Fourier, open it up!" Pascal cheered as she did that stupid monkey dance.

"Ugh, fine." Fourier popped the top of the staff back open the same way Fara had. She raised an eyebrow as she looked inside.

"Is it in there?"

Fourier maneuvered the staff to turn the shaft upside down while trying to still hold the top. Malik seamlessly took the top away from her as she slid a piece of paper out of the shaft in her hand.

It was the same rolled up piece of paper she had just seen. Her heart raced as she just stared at the possibility that Fara was telling the truth. She looked up to see Fara had changed her stance from a polite level of informal to having her arms folded, eyebrow arched, and smirking like she had outsmarted a God.

"Fourier, hurry uuuuup!" Pascal wined as she crept in closer to sister to get a good look at the paper.

"We should get crabbettes." Fourier gulped as she held the paper. Sophie's messy writing and drawing staring back at her. She looked back at Fara with wide eyes.

Fara tried to hold back her laughter as Lion dropped another soft fist on her head to silence her.

"Okay, now _that's_ over with." Fara smiled "I got a question. Where was that portal that you stepped out of?"

"This way!" Pascal took Fara's hand and dragged her off with vigor. Fara struggled for the first few steps as Lion just shrugged and followed the rest of the group. "So Zero Eleth, huh? C'mon, you havta explain!"

"It's base eleth." Fara steps fell in sync with Pascal's. "All eleth is derived from Zero Eleth. You all have been unwittingly manipulating it by-"

"Fara!" Lion shouted, which made Fara groan as they passed though the center of town.

"Monsters get stronger and smarter the more they possess." Fara's thoughts swam with the reasons. "For a whole mess or reasons. Feel free to figure them out."

"There certainly is a lot that you can't tell us." Asbel commented

Lion's eyes shifted up and down at Asbel, then to Cheria, then over the rest of the group. He shook his head. "You have no idea."

"And trust us, we are more then happy to give you everything." They turned a corner and stopped at one of the many walls of pipes "If it wasn't for the fact it would probably destroy us."

"Destroy you?" Cheria gasped. "That's awful."

"Well, it only makes sense." Pascal commented as Fara and Lion inspected the pipes. "If they are from the future, then telling us how to get to that future would alter the course of how we actually got there, which would kill these two."

"...What?" Asbel scratched his head. "I'm lost. How did we get from talking to murder?"

"Don't worry about it Asbel." Richard smiled. "It's simply a matter of cause and effect."

"We have to make our own choices if they want to live, basically." Malik simplified.

"With our own knowledge." Hubert glared at Fara as she dropped to her stomach to see if anything was on the floor. "Which honestly Fara seems to be very bad at."

"Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner." Fara jumped to her feet "And I'm not bad at it, you guys are just slow."

"Excuse me?!" Hubert took the challenge as Fara held her ground.

"We are not!" Pascal puffed up her cheeks. "Hu's one of the smartest best-est people I know! Fourier too!"

"...Really?" Hubert stopped to look at Pascal. Fara smiled out of the corner of her mouth. "You...?"

"Fara!" Lion gripped her shoulder and she turned around. "Do I have to watch you every second?"

"You don't _have_ to do anything." She scratched her head and sighed. "Whoever opened this one knew what they were doing. You want to open it up?"

"They could be on the other side." Lion looked over at the group behind them.

"I don't think it's wise either." She reached for her weapon.

"You plan on running in there?" Hubert's disapproval hit them. "The two of you against all those monsters?"

"You have a better idea?" Fara turned back. Beneath the dark glasses there was distinct level of frustration. "Because I don't. I can't you put you all at risk."

"Basic causality." Lion nodded, causing Fara respond with a nod.

"We get hurt." Asbel tried to put it together. "You two get hurt, right?"

"Something like that." Fara sighed. "It was really nice meeting all of you."

"Take care." Lion smiled. "I don't think-"

"Wait, you can't just-" Hubert looked over at Pascal.

"Someone tried to hurt Pascal." Sophie took Fara's hand. "Tried to hurt everyone. You can't just leave."

There was a silence as Fara's demeanor softened. She hugged Sophie and put a small smile on her face. "I'm sorry Sophie, I can't let-"

"Where is my son?"

The group started looking around confused as the distressed female voice came over them. Lion reached for his weapon and moved to one side of the group while Fara moved to the other. Her voice broke as she held her staff in front of her as a shield.

"..._You_?"

Lion moved to Fara's side as the woman approached them, her small weak steps shuffled toward them.

"Where is my son?" She repeated as Fara kept her weapon up.

"You...?" Fara shook her head a little bit. "Why are you here?"

The woman stopped, dropping her head, her long purple hair covering her face. She was weak and frail, somewhere between being inherently small from the way her white labcoat pink shirt, and grey skirt fit her from to the way her face seemed to have lacked a few meals. She dropped to her knees making sounds like she was crying, but no tears fell to the ground. She looked up at Fara with puffy red eyes, the purple pupils stabbing the group with her loss.

"That's the question...isn't it?" Her voice sounded like a scratched record.

"What's...going on?" Sophie moved pass Fara and Lion. Fara traded glances with Lion. "Why does she look exactly like me?"

The woman watched Sophie come right up to and kneel down to her.

"Proto Heis." The woman took a deep breath.

"How do you know my name?" Sophie tilted her head to one side. She offered her hand to the woman.

"How do you _not_ know mine?" She shook her head. "Just kill me. Please."

"No." Sophie shook her head and took the woman's hand. "We're going to find your son. Okay?"

The woman's despair turned briefly to horror then to anger. "No." She kicked her self away from Sophie. "Not you." The woman raised her hand, it glowing with black and white ribbons.

"SOPHIE!" Fara shouted. "GET DOWN!"

Sophie shielded herself as three eleth burst came from one of Fara's handguns, knocking the woman back. The group charged to separate the two of them with Fara pointing one of her guns at the woman.

"Amethystia." Fara sighed. "You don't even know who I am, do you?"

"The woman who just shot me?" Amethystia asked weakly. The three shots burned holes in her shirt, which were now wrapped in black and white light.

"Yeah..." Fara nodded her head. "Yeah. I guess that too."

"Amethystia...?" Lion looked down at her. "No way."

"Who is she?" Cheria asked as the three wounds vanished the clothes repaired themselves.

"You two both know who I am...?" Her sight bounced between the two of them. "And I don't know who you two are. Ha...the irony. Haha. Hahahaha!" Her laughter gained momentum and the dark light started illuminating her.

"Everyone get back!" Fara put herself between Amethystia and Hubert as he grabbed Pascal. Lion shuffled the rest of the group as Amethystia rose to feet with the black light levitating her.

"Stand down Oswell." Amethystia's eyes switched colors between black and white. Something it Fara skipped a beat as she saw Hubert stand besides her with his guns pointed. "I have looked into the vortex and it has consumed me. Stand down."

"Hubert, run." Fara commanded "This is more dangerous then you can even imagine. Get out of here."

"What is she?" Hubert matched her voice. They watched as Amethystia raised her hand, black and white eleth swirled around it and created something solid extention of it.

"Damnit Hubert, think of Pascal!" Fara pushed Hubert away and changed her weapon to staff to protect herself as Amethystia came down on her. The eleth rippled under their feet as Fara gritted her teeth and Amethystia stared blankly at Fara.

"FARA!" Lion shouted as Hubert wrapped himself over Pascal to protect her from the clashing eleth. The air around them rushed like a hurricane. "Don't even think about it!"

"Too late!" Fara shouted "_Oh spirit of life, of time, of space, of the everything and all!_"

"Damnit!" Lion turned his head to the group behind him, holding on to the rails and walls. "Get ready something even bigger!"

"Get m-" She gritted her teeth. She swung the staff up though Amethystia, making her vanish for second "Hubert, move!"

Hubert grabbed Pascal and dashed toward the rest of the group before Amethystia reappeared and came down on Fara with a crash again.

"Holy bananas, look at all that eleth go!" Pascal looked over Hubert's arm when he got a solid grasp on both her and a pipe.

"Where is she getting all that power?" Hubert questioned, watching Fara move with efficiency trying to block every blow. The ground ripped every time they made contact and the wind burst.

"I'd tell you but you'd kill me." Lion grunted and shoved his sword into the ground with a translucent blue wall appearing in front of them. "Everyone hang on!"

_"-to a time and another place!_" Fara shouted, her staff turning black and a bracelt she was wearing turning into a ring of right light. She shoved it into the ground and the ground opened up below her and Amethystia. An uncontrollable rush of wind wrapped around them and gripped both, dragging them down. The gang could feel themselves lift off the ground and Lion pressing up against the blue wall as Fara calmly sank into the abyss and Amethystia struggled to break free.

"Fara!" Lion pounded his fist against his own wall.

"I'll be fine!" She turned to Lion and smiled. "Take care of them!"

Lion hung his head and watched as Fara and Amethystia disappeared and the ground returned to normal. The wind gradually settled with them vanishing and Lion pulled his sword out of the ground. Everyone scattered to take in what was around them.

"You alright Pascal?" Hubert asked as they broke apart. He felt a tad bit embarassed for holding on to her that long.

"Yup!" Pascal said brightly. She dashed away to check the ground. "You're alirght, right, Hu?"

"Yes, fine, fine." Hubert regained his posture and shifted his attention to the surroundings.

"Now, _that_ was impossible!" Fourier voiced her opinion. "How can they just _vanish_? Just what are you people?!"

"It certainly was something." Malik walked over to where the two had vanished.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this." Lion put his sword away. "I...I have to go find a way to find Fara now. Excuse me."

"We'll go with you." Asbel stopped him from leaving. "I don't know what's going on, but you guys came back to this time for a reason, right?"

"Yes, but," Lion searched for the words. "Not for this. We were just suppose to come back, find the source of the portals, seal the source of portals on this side, and go back. Now, I..."

"Your friend in is trouble." Asbel asserted. " You don't have to do this alone. We can help."

"And you look about as lost as we do about to what to make of this." Malik put his hand on Lion's shoulder.

"You said you know us from the future." Richard stepped up. "You should know we don't stand down so easily."

"That woman knew my name." Sophie grimaced. "My old name."

"That is troubling." Hubert thought about it. "Fara recognized the woman too. Amethystia, she called her?"

"And she still hasn't explained zero eleth!" Pascal danced a little then jumped up and down on the ground where they vanished. "It would be weird if we didn't chase after her."

Cheria stood infront of Lion, which made him take a step back. "We're going to find her. She just sacrificed herself to protect us, and we don't take that lightly. No argument, alright?"

Lion smiled a bit and nodded. "Yes ma'am." He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I don't know where to start, though."

"How about something simple." Richard tapped his foot against the ground where the girls had vanished. "Who was that woman?"


End file.
